An in-depth Album Review of the Cirith UngolKing Of The Dead – Ultimate Edition from Ric ‘Suisyko‘ Dorr

An Interview With Cirith Ungol Drummer And Founding Member Robert Garven with Pat ‘Riot‘ Whitaker

Every so often in hard rock history there comes a game changing record release, an album that serves like some sonic barometer. One where an offering is so monumental that it can be used to gauge music before that album’s release and of course, music after its release as well. In 1984, the up and coming Ventura, California based Cirith Ungolreleased such an album with their sophomore opus, ‘King Of The Dead‘. The album, which was issued through Enigma Records, featured the musical talents of vocalist Tim Baker, guitarist Jerry Gogle, drummer Robert Garven and bassist Michael Vujea and, bluntly put, heavy music would never be the same again. Not bad for a band started by some high schoolers under the name Titanic, changed it to Cirith Ungol around 1972 and only played instrumentally at first.

This second studio album from Cirith Ungol followed their equally revered debut, Frost And Fire, but this record contained an undeniable shift in musical direction for the band. Where the debut was based a bit more in Seventies hard rock elements, King Of The Dead embodied a defined turn toward progressive hard rock and doom metal. The band produced the record themselves while Baker and Garven handled all the lyric writing though some folks aren’t aware that at least three songs (‘Atom Smasher‘, ‘Cirith Ungol‘ and ‘Death Of The Sun‘) were originally written in the mid-70s. The iconic artwork that adorns its cover, itself titled ‘King Of The Dead‘, was painted by Michael Whelan and inspired by the literary works of Sci-Fi/Fantasy author Michael Moorcock.

After two more studio albums, 1986’s One Foot In Hell and 1991’s Paradise Lost, Cirith Ungol would disband in 1992 due to their frustration with the music industry. However, the mythos and legacy of Cirith Ungol would build and increase unabated during the subsequent decades. Their influence was felt across numerous genres and sub-genres of metal and hard rock while countless musicians cited Cirith Ungol as a constant inspiration. Then, in 2015, members of the band came together for the 2015 Frost And Fire music festival in Ventura, California. Their first public appearance as a band since 1991, they participated in a meet-and-greet and item signing where they were immensely well-received. Soon after, Cirith Ungol announced that they would reunite for the 2016 Frost And Fire event, playing their first live show since December 13, 1991 which they did in October 2016.

Now we arrive in 2017 where Cirith Ungol have returned to bless the doom loving masses with a variety of ongoing events. Just last month, in late April, the band played their first ever live show on European soil at the Keep It True festival in Lauda-Konigshofen, Germany. To mark the occasion, as well as celebrate both Cirith Ungol and their landmark 1984 studio album milestone, King Of The Dead, Metal Blade Records have graced fans and collectors both with the utmost must-have release of recent years: The Ultimate Edition Of Cirith Ungol’s King Of The Dead!!!